Columbia University suspends wrestling team for racist, sexist text messages

For the second time in as many weeks, a men's Ivy League athletic team has been suspended for making lewd comments.

Columbia University suspended its wrestling team on Monday as officials investigated a series of text messages sent by team members. Sent on GroupMe and published by independent student news site BWOG, the messages include racist, sexist and homophobic language. They span from 2014 until a few days ago.

Columbia has "zero tolerance in its athletics programs for the group messaging and texts sent by several members of the men’s varsity wrestling team," according to the New York Times. (Screengrabs of the disturbing messages were posted by Bwog, a student-run campus news site.)

If Columbia needs advice on how to handle the situation, it can look 200 miles northeast to Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Harvard University suspended its men's soccer team earlier this month after discovering the team had been ranking members of the women's soccer team based on attractiveness. Harvard's team won't compete for the rest of the season, and is forced to forfeit its remaining games.

It remains unclear whether or not Columbia's wrestling team will receive a similar punishment.

The team did not compete in a meet in Binghamton, New York on Sunday, but has the New York State Championships scheduled for this weekend.

"The Department of Athletics has decided that Columbia wrestlers will not compete until we have a full understanding of the facts on which to base the official response to this disturbing matter," the university said in a statement, reports CBS.

The GroupMe messages make jokes about sexual assault, mocked a woman's Instagram account and used homophobic and racist slurs. Students protested the incident for nearly two hours on Monday and called for the wrestlers involved to issue public apologies and be removed from the team.

"The University should not condone this kind of behavior," Columbia student Jet Harper told the Columbia Spectator, "and if we don't take action, people will think it is OK."